Bio

Jeffrey David Matthews was born on September 28, 1972, in the United States. By the early 1990s, he was living in Oklahoma and had family ties to the Short family, the relatives who later became victims in his case. Before the murder, Matthews lived near the rural area where Otis and Minnie Short resided. Investigators later alleged that he and an associate believed money was hidden inside the couple’s home. That belief became the motive behind the violent robbery that brought him national attention and eventually placed him on Oklahoma’s death row.

Murder Story

In the early morning of January 27, 1994, two intruders entered the home of Otis and Minnie Short east of Rosedale, Oklahoma. Minnie Short was attacked with a knife and had her throat cut but survived. Moments later, Otis Earl Short, 77, was shot in the head at close range and died.

Authorities said Jeffrey Matthews and accomplice Tracy Dyer searched the house for nearly two hours, demanding money. They left with cash, firearms, and the couple’s pickup truck.

Police traced a phone call made from the house and quickly connected Dyer to the crime. He later implicated Matthews. Searches near Matthews’s home led to the recovery of the murder weapon and stolen property.

Matthews was convicted and sentenced to death, but the first conviction was overturned on appeal because of legal errors. He was retried, convicted again, and returned to death row. After years of appeals and multiple execution delays, Jeffrey David Matthews was executed by lethal injection in Oklahoma on January 11, 2011.